Since the weather has a got a bit wetter and colder i've had to use the climate/air con for demisting the front windscreen ..... and its absolute cr*p. :liao: Basically it seems to lack any real power even with the climate/air con thing on maximum and does not clear the screen (or even make much of an impression) when stationary for at least 5/10 minutes. My wife's old Polo (the van shape thing) had about double the power that mine currently has. Do other Octy RS owners have this problem or could there be a pronlem - and if so any ideas? :confused:

Is the screen clean (apart from the mist) ?

I found my old polo (too old to be van-shaped) had a really dirty windscreen and required several minutes of high speed warm air to clear. After I cleaned and degreased it using those interior screen wipes you get from Halfords, it was a lot quicker clearing up...

Still, I sometimes find my fabia takes time to demist, even though it's relatively clean. So maybe a poor skoda design somewhere ?

I find taking the CC off "Auto", hitting the screen de-mist button, and then winding the fan speed & temperature right up clears the screen as quick as any other car i've had

The screen clears a lot more quickly if you close (until they click totally shut) the air vents in the middle of the dash. This forces all the air out in front of the windscreen rather than into the car.

Stu, hit the Windscreen button, and then press the re-circulation button.

This tends to work really well when the temp out side is below 5c

I generally find that, even if the screen is misted up, by the time it's had a blast at "4" for about 30 seconds (even on cold), you can see enough to drive safely crouched down a bit, and within 2 minutes, it's largely clear. I've noticed that the inside of the screen looks a lot greasier at this time of year because I'm wiping the screen with a cloth more often. I guess it's not helping with the smears. :(

Anyway, as long as there is moving air over it, mist generally clears pretty quick. (and me using air-con rarely helps shift it any quicker)

Think I must have a problem since I already take it off "Auto" and put the de-mist button on and its still lousy - will try the closing of vents but nothing seems to come out of them when ive got the demist on anyway so can't see that that will change much :(

i get the same problem, even if the screen is clear as soon as you climb in and start the car it all steams up and takes ages to clear. must be climate control as my gf polo has the same unit and it does the same. where as my 14 year old golf is much better!

Stu' date=' hit the Windscreen button, and then press the re-circulation button.

This tends to work really well when the temp out side is below 5c[/quote']

Cheers - had forgot to try recirc to see if that improved matters!

Jason - your fan sounds a thousand times better than mine.

As with current VW policy, you cant select demist AND recirculation. I find the best way is to use the air con/climate control for demisting all the time, in-fact we never use the demisting setting at all.

Sounds to me more like a case of shortage of gas in your air con system Stu, so I suspect a visit to the dealer to get him to check the air con, and make sure he puts high and low gauges on the system to check it and not "its blowing cold air sir" testing. Although thinking more, you can check the air con system with the climate control fault coding...so might not need gauges.

The CC seems to have a mind of its own. If I press the screen demist button, both the ECON and AUTO (whichever is on at the time) go off and the fan speed increases dramatically. This normally clears the screen in a fairly short time, although I do try to keep the inside of my screen clean. If I press the ECON button, the demist indicator stays on but the fan speed drops and it clears less quickly unless I hike the fan up again.

The best car for demisting that I have had is the Mondeo. When you switch it to demist it automatically puts the air con on and clears the screen in no time. In conjunction with the heated screen I never had any problems seeing out of the screen.

@ Jason driving along crouched down looking through a 2in wide slot of demisted screen. NOOOOO! Don't do it. You'll end up driving more slowly anyway, so just sit for an extra minute on your driveway and clear it before you set off.

Stu,

:rant:

I agree, if there's one thing wrong with the Octy vRS (apart from the water in the boot problem) it's that the demister is cr@p.

I find it works best (as others have said) with the central vents shut, on Econ cranked up to full fan with the 2 side vents open too. Even then it struggles when I have 4 people in the car though. Another point you brought up is that it changes all the settings itself, a right pain in the rear!

I might try the recirculating approach? My BMW was much better when it came to demisting, SWMBO's Felicia is fine though?

Maybe it's the whole climate control thing, when it's wet and misty outside it's trying to replicate that climate in the car?

Rant mode: off

That feels better getting that off my chest! :smile-l:

Andy

no problem with screen demisting with my octy it doesnt take long at all however the rear windows are another matter they take ages too clear a problem i suppose with owning an octy combi?

my heater fan is great very powerful it even blows the air freshener off of the air vent!

Clean your windscreen - seriously ! I got into my Octy vRS in the snow on the way home tonight, it steamed up instantly, left my CC on Auto 19 degrees, hit the windscreen button, it was crystal clear within about 4 miles (4 dodgy miles following my mate's tail-lights at about 30mph that is )

When its above 5c, I just leave it on auto because the aircon will remove any moisture from the outside air. Thus you are blowing completely dry air onto the screen, in my RS and the mondeo this results in a clear screen in just a few minutes. You can literally watch as the mist just vanishes.

Below 5c I hit the screen button (no point in turning off auto because the aircon does not work below 5c), this automatically puts the fan onto full blast at the screen. All other vents are disabled, once clear and to avoid it steaming up whilst driving I leave the screen setting but just use the - Button to reduce the fan speed to a not so deafening level. This keeps the warm air blowing on the screen.

Both cars clear equally well. The mondeo has a heated screen which is broken (clears a few thin strips) so I just treat that the same as the RS.

Clean your windscreen - seriously !

I'll third that. As anexperiment, clean one half, wait until it mists up. That will tell you if it's the climate or the screen...

Having read the various options tried by members to demist the windscreen, can I be controversial and suggest reading page 96 of the Octavia Owner's Manual? More wrong than right methods have been posted above! I drove from St Neots to Telford very early this morning in torrential rain and had no problems keeping all the car windows clear of condensation by using aircon and manually controlling the settings. Neither AUTO nor ECON were showing on the RHS of the Climatronic display, temperature was set to 22 degrees, fan speed to 3 bars, and air distribution was set to screen, upper and lower body. The centre and side vents were fully open.

Well when me and youngest Miss Kentish went to and from Duxford Sunday, we had no misting or condensation problem full stop at any time, but then I had the climate on auto, set to 20c.

Ultimately the air con will dry the air and so stop condensation/misting. regardless of where the air is directed.